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Repr esentatives of some 100 countries and international organisations kick off a two-day donor conference here today seeking $500-million to rebuild Liberia after 14 years of civil war.

The first day was to be set aside for experts to determine the African country's needs and problems, and the programmes that can deal with them.

Tomorrow, US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, will say how much their respective governments intend to pledge, and outline their visions for the future of Liberia, whose civil war has destabilised the entire west African sub-region.

Diplomatic sources here said Washington was preparing to pledge $200-million over two years, nearly half the target figure.

In the runup to the donors' conference, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told journalists the international community has an obligation to "help Liberia pick itself up".

"I think we must all have learned by now the consequences of failed states, and what could happen when a state can be used as a haven by terrorist elements who organise, train and come to haunt the rest of us," said Annan.

"And so I think that from a humanitarian and moral point of view it is right that we help. Even from a self-interested point of view, it is right that we help Liberia".

Nicola Reindorp, representing the British aid group Oxfam, said the conference represented "a real chance to invest in peace and stability, not just in Liberia but in the region as a whole.

"The sums of money needed pale in comparison to the billions pledged for rebuilding Iraq," she said, "but the difference they could make is immense".

Analysts warn, however, that without long-term international commitment to disarm and reintegrate fighters in Liberia's back-to-back civil wars into civilian life, no amount of financial aid will ensure a transition to a peaceful and democratic state.

"There is no quick solution here," said Comfort Ero, the west Africa director of the International Crisis Group (ICG), in a report released this week.

"Liberia is a collapsed state that has effectively become a UN protectorate, so the international community will have to be there for the long haul".

The United Nations has already requested some $170-million in emergency humanitarian aid for the country that was settled in the 19th century by freed American slaves.

Rich in resources including rubber, timber and diamonds, Liberia has been plundered by two civil wars that since 1989 have left some 300 000 dead and made refugees of one in five of its citizens.

There is no effective sanitation or consistent supply of drinking water, roads are pitted with potholes and electricity supplies are non-existent outside the capital, Monrovia.

Few schools have teachers, healthcare facilities are bare of even essential medicines and some 80% of Liberia's 3,3-million people - two-thirds of whom are under age 40 – are unemployed. – Sapa-AFP.

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